At the end of the seventeenth century and in the early part of the eighteenth century,
the newly affluent colonists created a demand for finely crafted furniture. American
cabinetmakers responded through the use of richer woods and by modifying the
earlier Jacobean forms in order to achieve the lighter, more graceful designs preferred
by fashionable patrons. The taste of the well-to-do colonists and the products of
American craftsmen reflected the influence of new fashions in English furniture
design. English cabinetry began to take on some of the elegance of French styles
as a result of the work of Continental craftsmen who came to England in the late
seventeenth century. A style called William and Mary after the reigning English
monarchs thus evolved in England after 1660 and was adopted by American cabinetmakers
at the end of the century. Although Jacobean decorative techniques such as turning
and carving were retained in furniture design, proportions were refined, curves
and angles added, and structural members made slimmer. This pine and walnut
table with a circular top and three finely turned legs splayed outward at a vigorous
angle is a popular William and Mary form. The angle of the legs and the curve of
the round table avoid the heaviness of the earlier Jacobean square forms. The bulbous
uprights of Jacobean furniture have given way to slim and varied turnings. The total
effect is one of lightness and refinement.